How to Check Your Typing Speed in Words Per Minute and Improve It

Try it now: use our free Typing Speed Test to check your WPM in seconds.

Introduction

“How fast do I actually type?” A reader asked us that after seeing a data entry job advert that wanted 40 words per minute, minimum. She had been typing on a phone and a laptop for years and assumed she would pass easily. Then she took a proper test and got 31.

That gap between how fast we feel we type and how fast we type when someone is timing us is completely normal. In everyday typing you pause to think, you fix a word here and there, you glance down. A test strips all of that away and gives you one honest number: your WPM, short for words per minute.

The good news is that number is not fixed. Most people who test at 30 to 40 WPM can add 10 to 15 words per minute in a few weeks, not by typing frantically, but by fixing two or three specific habits. First, though, you need a measurement you can trust.

What WPM really means

WPM sounds precise, but it rests on a simple convention: one “word” counts as five characters, including spaces. So if you type 200 characters in one minute, that is 200 divided by 5, which is 40 WPM. It does not matter if the actual words were long or short.

Most tests report two numbers:

Gross speed — how fast you typed, errors included.
Net speed, or speed with accuracy — your score after mistakes are taken into account.

Employers care about the second one far more. Typing 55 WPM with an error in every sentence means someone must correct your work. Typing 42 WPM at 97% accuracy is, in real office terms, faster. Always look at both figures.

A rough guide to where scores sit:

Under 25 WPM — hunt-and-peck typing, usually looking at the keys a lot
25 to 40 WPM — average for most casual computer users
40 to 55 WPM — comfortable for most office and admin jobs
55 to 75 WPM — fast, the range many dedicated typists reach
Over 75 WPM — professional speed, built over a long time

How to take a fair test

A badly taken test gives you a number you cannot compare against next week. Do it the same way each time.

Step 1: Sit properly before you start

Put the keyboard at a comfortable height, feet flat, screen at eye level if you can. Cold hands and a hunched position genuinely slow people down. It sounds fussy, but a test taken while perched on the edge of a bed is measuring your furniture as much as your typing.

Step 2: Choose a test of at least one minute

Very short tests flatter you. A 15-second burst is mostly reflexes. A one-minute test is the standard most employers refer to, and a three or five minute test is even more honest because tiredness and tricky words show up. Start with one minute. Later, use longer tests to check your staying power.

Step 3: Type the text exactly as shown

Copy the words in front of you, including capital letters and punctuation if the test includes them. Do not stop to correct every slip with the backspace key unless the test tells you to; on many tests, pressing backspace repeatedly costs more time than the error itself. Keep moving forward.

Step 4: Record both numbers

Write down your WPM and accuracy together, with the date and test length: for example, “14 October, one minute, 38 WPM, 94% accuracy.” That record matters when you compare next week.

Why you are probably slower than you think

When people retake a test after watching their own hands, the same problems come up again and again.

Looking down at the keys. This is the biggest one. Every glance down breaks the flow and forces your eyes to find their place in the text again. You might type each individual word quickly, yet lose seconds all through the test in those little searches.

Using only a few fingers. If two fingers do all the work, they have to travel across the whole keyboard. Spreading the work across all your fingers shortens every journey.

A simple practice routine that works

Days 1 to 7: Learn the home row

Place your left fingers on A, S, D, F and your right fingers on J, K, L, semicolon. The bumps on F and J let you find the position without looking. Practise short drills slowly, looking at a diagram of finger positions — just not down at your hands.

Days 8 to 21: Short tests, one focus at a time

Take a one-minute test as a warm-up. Then spend ten minutes on one weakness: capital letters, numbers, punctuation, or the keys your weakest fingers handle. Finish with another one-minute test. Three or four sessions a week is enough for most people to see movement.

From week 3: Build accuracy first, speed second

Here is the rule we give everyone: if your accuracy drops below 95%, slow down slightly. Accuracy is the foundation. Once you can type a passage cleanly at a given speed, nudging the pace up is easy. Trying to add speed on top of constant errors just trains the errors in more deeply.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is 40 WPM good enough for a normal office job?

For most general office, admin, and customer support roles, yes — 40 WPM with good accuracy is a common asking point in job adverts. Specialised roles like transcription or dedicated data entry often ask for 60 WPM or more, and employers watch mistakes as well as speed.

My score changes every time I test. Which one is real?

All of them, in a way. Speed varies with the text, your tiredness, and the keyboard. Take three one-minute tests in one sitting, use the middle score as your working number, and always compare tests of the same length.

Should I learn to type without looking, even though I am already fairly quick?

If you are above about 35 WPM and still looking down a lot, you have probably hit the ceiling of that style. Switching feels awful for the first week — expect to drop to around 20 WPM while you relearn. Most people pass their old score within three to four weeks of short daily practice, then keep climbing past it.

Conclusion

Test yourself honestly, write the number down, and work on one habit at a time — eyes up, fingers spread, accuracy before raw speed. Fifteen minutes a few times a week will move a 38 WPM score further than you expect. Retest once a week, not every hour, and let the written record show you the progress your fingers might not feel yet.